Clover Blossom Quandary

MaryRowe
MaryRowe Posts: 736 ✭✭✭✭

The clover is coming into bloom here now, but I can't decide which blossoms to gather. I found a large and lush stand of beautiful red clover in bloom, but it is growing right along the side of the road along the front of my property. All the clover that I've found so far growing far enough up from the road that I know it's clean, is the white clover.

The road is a gravel road that doesn't get much traffic, just the mailman and maybe five or six other vehicles a day, and we've had rain every day for the past two weeks to keep the dust and gunk down, so I'm sorely tempted--those red clover blossoms are some of the biggest I've ever seen around here. But... they are growing along the side of a road, and that's certainly not going to help their medicinal or nutritional value.

On the other hand, I know the white clover blossoms are clean, and they are almost as big and pretty. But I don't know how their medicinal and nutritional properties compare with red clover flowers. Can you use them interchangeably? I'd be grateful for advice from our herbalists🙂

Comments

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    According to my information, Red Clover, Trifolium pratense, is the primary species used. The other Trifoliums (repens, hybridum, wormskioldii, variegatum, etc.) can be substituted but are not preferred. So I'd use them for tea or nourishing herbal infusions but would look for another patch of Red Clover to get the best medicine.

    We sometimes have to use the bounty we are given. So harvest what you have and enjoy!

  • karenjanicki
    karenjanicki Posts: 996 ✭✭✭✭
  • MaryRowe
    MaryRowe Posts: 736 ✭✭✭✭

    Thank you both @torey @karenjanicki I have been out gathering the white blossoms this AM. Still haven't found any more red clover yet, but there are still several places on the property to check. The pollinators seem to be enjoying the patch down by the road, so I guess I'll leave those flowers for them....

  • karenjanicki
    karenjanicki Posts: 996 ✭✭✭✭

    I hope you can find some more. I would love to set up a pollinator garden for the bees. Clover is a good idea for that :)

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2021

    I was set top mow this morning but found a nice patch of white and red clover so my mowing was half hazzard and my yard has big splotchy area in it, where I generously mowed around clover. I just finished harvesting clover heads so I suppose I should go finish mowing.

  • MaryRowe
    MaryRowe Posts: 736 ✭✭✭✭

    That is a great article on white clover; thanks for posting.

    After a day out foraging, mostly for clover blossoms (It's Solstice! British folk traditions--and probably others as well--say herbs gathered at Solstice are most powerful...), I came to reflect on the two clovers,,,,,,

    The red flower is more preferred, and much more written about. But I wonder if that is due more to its properties, or to its size? It never really dawned on me before, but the red clover blossom is two to three time the size of the white, so you have to pick a lot more white ones to get whatever measure you are going for. Also, once you get them back to the house, the red clover flowers are much easier to handle--they hold together better as you are laying them out to dry, and will likely hold together better after drying. So I wonder how much all that counts toward the preference for red clover flowers among herbalists?

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @MaryRowe I read that the red clover is overall a more powerful herb. The size helps too.